Oh, they did have people out. But this one wasn't well-forecast, and whereas we started getting snow around 5, it didn't become apparent that things were going to be really bad for another hour or so after that.

To give another indication of just how badly we got surprised, the TriMet bus fleet didn't get chained up ahead of time, either, and that virtually never happens.

I would agree that the properly and normally cautious call would have been to call the closure much earlier. But I put at least as much blame on the weathercasting professionals as I do on school officials. This one they screwed up, badly, and the one on the radio this morning admitted it.